Bowls (also lawn bowls, variants include flat-green bowls and crown-green bowls) is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a “jack” or “kitty”. It is played on a pitch which may be flat (for “flat-green bowls”) or convex or uneven (for “crown-green bowls”). It is normally played outdoors although there are some indoor venues and the surface is either natural grass, artificial turf, or cotula.
Lawn bowls is usually played on a large, rectangular, precisely leveled and manicured grass or synthetic surface known as a bowling green which is divided into parallel playing strips called rinks. In the United States, the bowling green is typically 120 feet by 120 feet. In the simplest competition, singles, one of the two opponents flips a coin to see who wins the “mat” and begins a segment of the competition (in bowling parlance, an “end”), by placing the mat and rolling the jack to the other end of the green to serve as a target. Once it has come to rest, the jack is aligned to the center of the rink and the players take turns to roll their bowls from the mat towards the jack and thereby build up the “head”.
The present invention is concerned with maintaining precisely leveled and manicured grass. Prior to the disclosed invention, bowling greens were made in the following manner: the pitch had all vegetation removed and a washed sand base was inserted. The washed sand base was leveled using a number 55 sieve to level the bowling green. Then, the user installs the turf. Under current lawn bowls regulations, the precisely leveled field cannot have a variance on the 120 foot bowling green of no more than ⅛ inch. This obviously takes some time to calibrate.
After the field is calibrated it is maintained with a grooming wheel in a manner similar to golf courses. However, golf courses do not require a variance on the 120 foot bowling green of no more than ⅛ inch, so, over time, the variance increases as a result of foot traffic, natural movement of the earth and so on creating “hills” which are upward deformities and “valleys” which are downward deformities. Prior to the disclosed invention the only way to correct variations in the bowling green was to remove the turf, level the washed sand base and basically start all over again. The present invention solves this problem.